too much water?

[wizadora]

oh great so i live in Spain and i thought i was lucky that my 9m dd loves her water as it is so hot here etc.she drinks tonnes of it.from her bottle.now i read that 1.nothing should be given from the bottle except milk
2.apparently you can "poison" a baby with too much water and 3.its not good giving too much because it fills them up.

god this parenting lark really gets on my wick sometimes.just when i thought id got something right....
thoughts on this anyone?

[whomovedmychocolate]

Where did you read that rubbish?!

If your child is dehydrated they will DIE. Unless you are feeding her many litres and she's not having anything else I think you can recycle whatever book you got that from and trust your instincts.

[nickytwotimes]

it's great your child drinks well! you'd have to go some to "poison" yourself with water! "nothing from a bottle" refers to juices, because it can harm their teeth.

[GibbonInARibbon]

It would have to be a huge amount of water to do any harm.

Water is excellent for LO's and lol 'I think you can recycle whatever book you got that from'

[BibiThree]

Too much water (and I mean excessive amounts) can flush out sodium in your body I think? I worked with a runner and obsessive water drinker whose mother clipped an article from a health journal about it, but you'd be hard pressed to find a baby that could drink the amount of water it would take to do damage I should think.

[BibiThree]

I got this from About.com:

Can you drink too much water?
In a word, yes. Drinking too much water can lead to a condition known as water intoxication and to a related problem resulting from the dilution of sodium in the body, hyponatremia. Water intoxication is most commonly seen in infants under six months of age and sometimes in athletes. A baby can get water intoxication as a result of drinking several bottles of water a day or from drinking infant formula that has been diluted too much. Athletes can also suffer from water intoxication. Athletes sweat heavily, losing both water and electrolytes.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Well I'm sure if Wizadora's DD is running any marathons she'll be sure to limit her fluids . But seriously, in a hot country you need more fluids. Yes you can flush out sodium, you can also poo out iron if you have wholemeal bread but the risks are tiny.

[Otter]

i think its if they drink gallons ie following an e
my baby has a cup of water on the go all day and i would never deny it

[whomovedmychocolate]

Otter if you are giving your children ecstasy tablets you have worse problems than their fluid intake

[NineUnlikelyTales]

Yes, quick call the social services

[gillhowe]

I think that I've read that advice, as I remember it was in a book that originated in the US and it was talking about the first month (although the same advice was referenced again later). "Water intoxication" seems to be more of an issue in the states?

As I understood it you can give a baby too much water (but especially a baby under 6 months) as they have a lower blood volume its easier to do than for an adult, there seems to be a US concern about people overdiluting formula / supplementing with water to make the formula stretch further.

Its probably a lot of water though, the thing I read basically said that if water was given from a cup it wouldn't be possible to have too much.

Anyway, I'm no doctor so don't rely on me and I'm sure you're not giving absolutely stupid amounts of water!

[gillhowe]

Sorry, it took me so long to write that post that I've just repeated what loads of other people have said!